The Strong Towns Podcast

A year ago, Shreveport, Louisiana was on the brink of building a highway right through the poor inner-city neighborhood of Allendale. As residents came together and rallied against this project in order to protect their homes and their community, Strong Towns became an inspiration and a voice for their efforts. In addition to sharing stories about the people and the community that would be ripped apart as a result of this highway, Strong Towns also focused on the fundamentally flawed economic arguments propping up the project in the first place. We proved just how financially harmful this highway would actually be, in opposition to local leaders claiming that the project would benefit their city. You can see all our work on Shreveport here. As a result of this national focus on the issue, lawyers from across the country including the Sierra Club's legal team have now stepped in to offer assistance and the fight against the highway is gaining momentum. In our latest podcast episode, Chuck Marohn chats with John Perkins about how Strong Towns helped shift the conversation in his town of Shreveport, Louisiana in powerful ways. We want to help other communities like the Allendale neighborhood fight back against harmful projects. We want to help more towns grow strong and resilient for all of their residents. If you care about this mission, join us: www.strongtowns.org/membership.

In this podcast episode, Chuck breaks down Strong Towns' core insight about the American growth model — what's wrong with it and why it's bankrupting our country — then talks about how this movement responds to that problem in a thoughtful, non-partisan manner. There are no simple answers. Success for our country will not come from the federal government or the corporate sector and trickle down to our communities. Rather, when we focus on the struggles of real people and make small, incremental investments over a period of time to improve them, that's when we'll see broad prosperity in our nation. That's when we'll be building Strong Towns. Together, we can revolutionize our approach to growth and development. We can make our places stronger than they've ever been. Join the movement that's changing the world. Become a member: strongtowns.org/membership? Mentioned in this Podcast: Tomas Sedlacek — check out our series on his economic theories The Curbside Chat

In this podcast on the second day of the Strong Towns Winter Member Drive, Chuck shares a bit about the history of Strong Towns and the wake up call he had while working as an engineer — building the very roads and big box stores he now recognizes as harmful for our towns and cities. To build stronger towns, we have to shift the cultural conversation in American. It's a big challenge but with your help, we know we can do it. Join the Strong Towns movement today. We've still got a ways to go before we get to our goal of 2000 members. Don't procrastinate. Become a member now.

On this podcast episode, Chuck Marohn shares an update on the Strong Towns movement and invites listeners and readers to join us as members during this important week. Help us spread the Strong Towns message across the globe. Become a member today. Help us become #2000Strong.

In this podcast, Rachel Quednau interviews long-time Strong Towns member Matthias Leyrer about how he has built a financially resilient household. They discuss topics ranging from a major home rehab project to how the birth of a child changes your perspective on what's important (with a few tangents in between).  This article is part of an ongoing series about building personal and household resilience. Read more from the series here.

Chuck and Rachel recap recent events in Ashland, Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Northampton, Massachusetts. They also discuss upcoming events in Dallas, Texas and Monterey, California, plus a Strong Towns staff and board retreat. Finally, they check in about their holiday baking plans. Mentioned in this Podcast: Event and member meet-up in Dallas Event in Monterey And Your Daughters Shall Prophesy: Stories From the Byways of American Women and Religion by Adrian Shirk  

In this episode, Chuck Marohn interviews Keita Demming, host of the Disruptive Conversations podcast. Keita works in the space of applied innovation, helping companies become beautiful organizations, and holds a PhD from the University of Toronto. In this conversation, Chuck and Keita discuss the concept of disruption and why disruptive conversations are so valuable. They also talk about the difference between simple problems, complicated problems and complex problems — and which we must focus our efforts on in order to build a better world. You can also catch Chuck on Keita's podcast in an episode from earlier this year.

Chuck and Rachel discuss upcoming events in Virginia, Washington, DC, and Massachusetts. They also discuss Chuck's newest article on the pitfalls of school drop-off zones and chat about the special content they're preparing for next week.

The Strong Towns message has a big impact wherever it is heard, but how do we turn that into action? In this episode, Founder and President of Strong Towns, Chuck Marohn, talks about some of the next steps for the movement.

Chuck and Rachel recap recent events in New Haven, CT and New York, NY. They also discuss some recent success stories of Strong Towns members in action. Mentioned in this podcast: "An Open Letter to the City of Springfield" by Chuck Marohn "One Million Strong" by Chuck Marohn Join us for this week's slackchat at 12pm CT on Wednesday "Putting Portland's Urban Highway in its Place" by Rachel Quednau "Placemaking Projects Create a Stronger Iron Range" by Rachel Quednau Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber Who Gets What ? and Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design by Alvin Roth